Wednesday, 2 July 2008

After the success of the 70% Lint Excellence bar last week I simply couldnt waite to try the milk chocolate Lindt Excellence. Ive tried some extremely good milk chocolate bars lately including the Milka Alpine, Cadbury Dairy Milk and of course Hotel Chocolat's 40% bar...this had a lot to live up to in an already pretty busy market.

This Lindt Excellence offering came with the promise of being 'Extra Creamy' ... how have they done this I thought? A quick look at the ingredients list told me the bar is formed of 30% Cocoa solids and 20% milk solids....neither really outstandingly high. Further inspection showed the ingredients list containted 'butterfat'....lol im not even too sure what this is to be honest but i going to assume that the combination of that and large levels of cocoa butter were indeed acountable for the ultra smoothness of this bar. Butterfat!?? Anyone??

The bar came in a 35g serving which in truth just didnt feel enough to satisfy my hunger...Im obviosuly quite aware this isnt the usual serving size (around 50g) but im pretty sure even that wouldnt have fully satisfied me completely. The presentation of the bar itself was... well....excellence!! The wrapper looked sophisticated and worthy of a more premiuim brand of chocolate. The bar was coated in a tight layer of foil that not only kept the bar in mint condition but also maintained a nice dairy aroma to the bar....it smelt appertising and looked even better - Lindt always excel in these criteria.

I chilled the bar before eating it and with doing so the bar had a nice crisp crack as I split the pieces. The surface of the chocolate was slightly rippled due to the patternwork though the chocolate was soon as smooth as silk once placed on the tongue. It melted gorgeously on the tongue releasing its ever so creamy slightly vanilla noted taste. The flavour was sweet though not overly so and despite its slightly low cocoa content the cocoa flavour was relatively intense for the duration of the time the chocolate was present in the mouth. The only very slight shortcoming with this bar was the longevity of the taste...the texture was so soft and silky the flavour left the tastebuds all too quickly...probably not the biggest of problems if you have a 100g bar...but the quickness that the flavours disappear is slightly frustrating - especially as it tastes so creamy and delicious.

Overall this is another masterclass in how to create great tasting chocolate by Lindt. I say it everytime I review one of their products but they are still to let me down. Lindt seem to apply a pretty similar formula by producing great looking, smelling and tasting products made with high quality ingredients...this bar is another perfect example of this. The texture of the bar is to die for...its probably one of the smoothest tasting chocolates Ive reviewed; unfortunately the smoothness of the texture slightly comes at detriment to the taste and although the flavours are outstanding they leave the mouth just all too quickly. Theres no doubting this is some very high quality chocolate..definately worthy of a place in the overly cluttered milk chocolate market.